Order: shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/pilled…ple-of-doves

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Pilled Up on a Couple of Doves is the debut full-length by PDP III, who fell into alignment in December of 2018 amid a handful of immersive and improvisatory recording sessions held at Gary’s Electric Studio in Brooklyn, New York. The trio is a collaboration between composer/producer Britton Powell and two Berlin-based artists, the British composer/cellist Lucy Railton and the electronic artist Brian Leeds (Huerco S).

At the outset of these sessions Powell presented a series of compositional sketches anchored around multi-tracked electronics and acoustic percussion. These concepts were then used as the framework for collective improvisation, with the musicians working on instinct and layering as many as eight separate takes across a track. A portion of the record also reflects moments that are purely spontaneous – in-the-moment invention with Railton on electronics and cello and Powell and Leeds working on laptop computers.

The composition process involved little in the way of overt instruction, instead favoring discussion on more abstract notions of feel and energy. As a result, the final product was a bit surprising to all involved. “I don’t think the three of us had any idea how heavy and physical this thing was going to feel,” reflects Powell.

Subsequently reduced, edited, and collaged by Powell over the next two years, Pilled Up on a Couple of Doves presents a succession of alien moods. Gauzy textures are buoyed by extreme low end pressure. Serene industrial hum illuminates the rhythmic beating of waveforms. The sounds frequently evoke opposing emotions -- tenderness and anxiety, claustrophobia and transcendence.

The record culminates in 20-minute closer “49 Days,” where gradually unfurling textures for cello and electronics mirror the overtones of a ringing gong. It’s unsettling, but deeply meditative. A map of liminal space. Music to get lost to. “One thing that’s important in relation to my work with music is to access a place outside of physical space,” says Powell. “To pursue music as a tool to reach a place outside of physical existence.”

“There's something really simple, innocent, and timeless about working with acoustic percussion instruments,” explains Powell. “I think that they allow for a very true examination of sound. It feels vulnerable and really powerful at the same time.

Pilled Up on a Couple of Doves

49 Days

PDP III '49 Days' (SP125)

Millie & Andrea are Miles Whittaker and Andy Stott, fellow labelmates at Modern Love who collaborated on an occasional series of 12” releases between 2008 and 2010. It’s been four years since we last heard from them but they now return with “Drop The Vowels”, their debut album. Produced fast and loose through late 2013 / early 2014, it’s an album that recalls the strict and stripped funk of Anthony Shakir as much as it does Leila’s incredible debut ‘Like Weather’, eschewing the dark aesthetic both producers are best known for in favour of something much more visceral. It’s an album borne from a love of both pop and club music, made to evoke an adrenalised, hedonistic, as well as an emotional response.

Opener GIF RIFF brings to life a Gamelan edit stripped bare before the over-compressed ‘Stay Ugly’ breaks out with a tumbling, broken arrangement situated somewhere between Richard D James and Jai Paul. “Temper Tantrum” and “Spectral Source” follow, versions of tracks originally released on the second and third Daphne EP’s respectively, the former a rugged rave anthem tempered by blue strings, the latter a proper dancefloor destroyer recalling Shake’s mighty ‘Madmen’. ‘Corrosive’ flits between a fillibrating, arpeggiated steppers rhythm and a brutal jungle breakdown, while ‘Drop The Vowels’ further explores and strips bare bass & drums before the slow but jacking warehouse killer “Back Down” provides pure percussive abandon. Quay ends the set with something quieter, a sublime coda made entirely from field recordings.

Quay

Back Down

Ancient Erotics

Black Zone Myth Chant - Mane Thecel Phares (GRVTS003)

A1 - Belshazzar
A2 - In The Arms Of The Parcae
A3 - Orbit Slut
A4 - Two Stars, No Cross
B1 - He Evil
B2 - First Contact
B3 - Pass Over Into Nothing
B4 - If God Is Not Here



Buy at Boomkat

Black Zone Myth Chant - He Evil

Available through the honorable houses of HJ and HW!

DISK13

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SABLA - DANZAGUIDA

Prelude To A Summer

A3z72

High Speed Wind

TTT BANDCAMP

DJ Trystero – 賛辞

https://12thisle.bandcamp.com/album/on-nature

We've decided to take a brief traipse away from our typical release schedule to present this digital exclusive from Athens based multi-instrumentalist Christos Chondropoulos. We're currently crossing the t's and dotting the i's on a forthcoming double LP, but such is the quality and quantity of his archive we opted to release these 9 recordings with a coinciding riso print from Crud* for you to do with as you please. Strictly available via Bandcamp, releases August 25th. From Christos:

"Philosophically you can regard this music as a fresh view of the ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure - Structuralism and Deconstruction. It is a new approach when it comes to linguistics, the traditional music of the area, where Greece stands as a crossroads and future intelligences. I was interested to hide a fundamental philosophical question in music which would have the same qualities and immediacy as the authentic local music of the area."

*Slow-to-cop chumps beware: The prints are a one-off run. Once they're gone, they're gone.

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